The latest employee benefit trends | Incentive&Motivation

What are the latest employee benefit trends? We thought that the best person to ask would be the HR Director at one of the leading UK provider of empl

What are the latest employee benefit trends? We thought that the best person to ask would be the HR Director at one of the leading UK provider of employee services, Personal Group. Luckily, she had 3 key takeaways you can implement today.

Here, Rebekah Tapping gives her thoughts on the top three employee benefit trends you need to know about.

1. Health Benefits

“I believe health benefits will become a focus again as the NHS crisis continues. Employees struggling with health issues may have to wait longer for their treatment as the NHS crisis continues. Suffering from health issues over prolonged periods of time can affect work performance, and even the ability to make your way to the workplace. Employers are therefore likely to look for benefits which support their employers as well as positively impacting retention and productivity, which could be through PMI, Health Cash Plans, EAP schemes or Virtual GP services.”

2. Financial Education

“With the Government raising the auto enrolment contributions levels in April 2018 there is concern that employees will opt out. It seems to have fallen to HR departments to help educate their employees on the importance of saving for their pensions and the importance of wider financial wellbeing. In addition to auto enrolment, we have seen many other changes to pensions, for example the lifetime allowance that is making organisations and HR departments question their level of responsibility in communicating changes.”

3. Childcare Vouchers

“Childcare vouchers see another legislative change this year with the old scheme provided through employers ending. The new scheme will be managed directly by the government. If employees are currently utilising a childcare voucher scheme with their company, they may continue to do so after the changes, as long as the scheme continues to run. However, organisations may have to consider other tax free alternatives, such as ‘directly contracted childcare’ (childcare the employer arranges with a provider) and workplace nurseries, for those who are not currently using the scheme.”What trends have you seen when it comes to employee benefits? Join in the conversation on Twitter – search @incentivehub